UNFPA Madagascar fundraiser – please give!

TLDR: We got to see first-hand some of the amazing work UNFPA Madagascar is doing to help some of the country’s (and world’s) most vulnerable women and children. Please donate to help serve some of their most critical needs! Link to donate here and thanks in advance! (More detail below as to where your money will directly go to help)

How we got involved with the UNFPA

Damian and I first encountered of the UNFPA (the UN Population Fund) and its mission through the ‘After Spring’ documentary, which follows the lives of Syrian refugee families in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. We learned that the UNFPA provides sexual and reproductive health services for the camp clinic and has an incredible track record there – over 5,000 births have taken place at the refugee camp clinic over the last five years with zero maternal deaths. Yes, zero!

We made our first donation to the UNFPA after seeing the film and very quickly got involved with the organization on a deeper level. The UNFPA’s mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled, and especially in today’s global political climate we feel extremely passionate about the UNFPA’s work in promoting maternal and female health and family planning around the world. Alongside continued donations, I (Jyoti) help support the UNFPA by serving on the Friends of UNFPA Development & Communications committee (the Friends of UNFPA is the UNFPA’s United States fundraising arm).

Our time with UNFPA Madagascar

As many of you know, after getting married in February, Damian and I embarked on an 8-month around-the-world honeymoon. We knew we wanted to spend some time with the UNFPA on this trip, to see the amazing work put into action. Through some wonderful people there we had the opportunity to spend time with UNFPA Madagascar and see firsthand the impact the organization makes. To say that our experienced with UNFPA Madagascar changed our lives is almost an understatement. 

In all senses of the word, Madagascar is a developing country. The total GDP for the entire country is only $10 billion (less than the value of many US-based companies!). The average person lives on an income of less than $2 a day, with over 87% of the population living in poverty. There is a high birth rate and more than 42% of the population is under the age of 15.

These facts make it clear that Madagascar is in a state of need and being ranked #161 (out of 189) in the UN’s Human Development Index just underscores this point. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is much that is amazing out Madagascar – stunning and diverse natural beauty everywhere you look, a variety of natural resources, and hard-working and king people. But, being this low on the development index means that there are very basic maternal and female health needs that go unserved, needs that those of us lucky enough to be born into or raised in or living in developing countries would struggle to believe.

[In case you don’t need to read more and are ready to give, the link to donate is here. Thank you!]

How we can help UNFPA Madagascar

UNFPA Madagascar has already been doing some amazing work, as can be seen by a few of their successes:

• 4,000 new fistulas occur in Madagascar each year, the UNFPA is able to fund the reparation of 1,000 of them (for comparison, only 58 fistula repairs happened in the country in 2012)
• In Madagascar’s poorest region (Androy) contraceptive usage has increased from 7% in 2012 to 14% in 2017
• Through the UNFPA’s advocacy, a new law was passed last year, allowing those who are under 18 to access family planning (e.g., contraceptive) services – before then it was illegal

But even with these steps forward, many (many, many, many) needs still go unfulfilled. During our three days with the UNFPA Madagascar we visited public hospitals, community health centers, centers for vocational training and gender-based violence listening/legal assistance centers. At each of these locations we asked the staff what their most pressing needs are, what gaps are preventing them from being able to serve as many people as possible. And from this, we compiled a list of items that we would bring back to our friends and family and raise funds for (that’s you, yay!).

We were shocked and humbled by how so little can go so far in helping the women and children of Madagascar. An example we always like to tell is of a rural health clinic that has 4-6 women giving birth on site each night. Unfortunately the clinic only has two bed pans (seen in the bottom left above), and can’t afford any more. How much do bed pans cost? $2 each. Yeah.

[In case you don’t need to read more and are ready to give, the link to donate is here. Thank you!]

As such, we have created this fundraiser, where the proceeds will go directly to the service providers we met with during our trip with UNFPA Madagascar. We would so appreciate any support you can provide, and encourage you to donate to fund whichever initiative/s most resonate/s with you. The link to the fundraiser is here, and what we are raising funds for specifically is below. We will keep this updated with what has been fulfilled and what is still needed.

We are aiming to raise a minimum of $16,690, with funds allocated as per the below:

• Rural Community Health Center (more information from our specific visit here)
  • $3,000: Two (2) solar panels at $1,500 each
  • $2,460: Six (6) solar panel batteries at $410 each
  • $700: One (1) birthing table
  • $20: Ten (10) bed pans – completed! Thank you!
• Public Hospital (more information from specific our visits here)
  • $3,000: Ten (10) maternity beds at $300 each
  • $2,450: Seven (7) 7kg-laundry machines at $350 each
• Community Youth Center (more information from our specific visit here)
  • $1,100: Ten (10) sewing machines at $110 each
  • $1,000: Brick ceiling repair
  • $630: One (1) projector for health and leadership trainings
• Women Vocational Training Centers (more information from our specific visits here and here)
  • $550: Five (5) sewing machines at $110 each
  • $350: One (1) printer for producing health pamphlets
• Gender-based violence listening/legal assistance centers (more information from specific our visits here and here)
  • $1,430: Training for ten (10) women advocates at $143 each
• A general, unrestricted donation pool for UNFPA Madagascar’s ongoing work

Once we have made the donations and they have been delivered to the organizations we hope to partner with the UNFPA Madagascar office to provide updates, pictures and information to all the campaign supporters.

And a final reminder, the link to the fundraiser is here, thanks again!

With lots of love,

ps – if you’d like to read more about our time with UNFPA Madagascar you can read about our visit in Antananarivo here and our visit in Tulear here and all other Madagascar posts here.

Note: Za’atari refugee camp photograph courtesy of flickr